MONTREAL – When philosopher Charles Taylor read the tabloid headline Tuesday that the Parti Québécois government intends to ban the wearing of all religious symbols in public institutions, he assumed it was a blunder by the excitable Journal de Montréal.

“I don’t think the government would go that far,” he told a Radio-Canada interviewer.

Telling workers in the public sector, from daycares to hospitals, that they cannot wear a hijab, kippa, turban or conspicuous crucifix on the job would be “an absolutely terrible act of exclusion,” said Mr. Taylor, a McGill University professor who served as co-president of a government commission studying religious accommodations in 2007-2008.

“It is something that we would expect to see in [Vladimir] Putin’s Russia. It’s exactly the same sort of thing, that people cannot publicly be seen to be gay, they cannot have a gay pride parade, because it’s against the law. In that type of society, we expect to see that, though we protest strongly and properly. But in a liberal society like ours, it is almost unthinkable.”

But as the day passed with nobody from the government denying the Journal’s front-page report, it looked like the “almost unthinkable” is winning public policy in the PQ’s eyes.

In fact, the leaked details are in line with what the party promised during last year’s election campaign, when Premier Pauline Marois said such measures were needed to preserve “our identity, our language, our institutions and our values.”

Her minority government plans to table its proposals for a Charter of Quebec Values when the National Assembly resumes sitting next month. Delayed from the spring, the charter has been described by the minister responsible, Bernard Drainville, as the “Bill 101 of our era” — a reference to the French language charter enacted by the first PQ government in 1977.

“Quebec society is more and more multi-ethnic and multi-religious, which is an exceptional richness. But if we want to be able to properly manage this diversity, we will have to give ourselves rules and common values,” Mr. Drainville told Le Devoir last spring.

With its sovereignty project stalled, the PQ is hoping a focus on the protection of Quebec values will win support ahead of an election that could come next year.

In May, it commissioned a poll asking for people’s opinions on the accommodation of religious minorities, and found that a majority of respondents favoured banning religious symbols in the public service.

The commission led by Mr. Taylor and Gérard Bouchard recommended banning the symbols for employees in positions of authority — police officers, judges and prison guards. But the PQ intends to go much further, covering daycare workers, public school teachers and hospital employees, as well as all civil servants. In addition, people receiving government services would have to have their faces uncovered.

I have yet to have it explained how my wearing a religious symbol has affected my abilities to represent my citizens

The news broke on the same day Lionel Perez, mayor of the multi-cultural Montreal borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, was meeting with Mr. Drainville to discuss his concerns about the proposed charter. In May, Mr. Drainville had lashed out against the borough’s policy of not ticketing cars around synagogues on Jewish high holidays. He had also criticized the borough’s longstanding policy of designating two hours a week at the municipal swimming pool for women only.

Mr. Perez, who is Jewish and wears a kippa, said he tried unsuccessfully to sway Mr. Drainville on the question of religious symbols.

“If someone starts proselytizing at work, obviously it’s unacceptable behavior,” Mr. Perez said in an interview. “But someone who is wearing a hijab and is a school teacher, they can communicate, they can convey the information both verbal and non-verbal, and in no way does that affect the ability of the person to accomplish their responsibilities.

“As an elected official for the last four years I’ve been wearing a kippa, and I have yet to have it explained how my wearing a religious symbol has affected my abilities to represent my citizens. . . I think it’s an example of the new Quebec reality we have, the new Quebec demographics.”

Mr. Taylor said the PQ is wrong to think secularism requires religious neutrality of all state representatives.

“What is important is that these institutions be neutral,” he said. “But the fact that they are neutral does not mean that the people working in them are neutral.”

Mr. Perez hopes that the proposed charter remains a work in progress and that cooler heads will prevail. “The issue is so inflammatory that we need to be responsible and moderate in our views,” he said. “We have to demonstrate that it’s a debate of ideas and not play petty politics on the backs of citizens.”

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